Goodbye Arecibo: a new era is coming

 

Arecibo telescope

Goodbye Arecibo: a new era is coming

The iconic Arecibo telescope is history. The cable break ended the history of that telescope. And the end of an era means the beginning of a new era. Arecibo was the tool, which found many things like quasars and other distant radio sources, but one thing is what this telescope ever got, and that thing is confirmed alien signal. 

There was one very big weakness in the Arecibo telescope, and that thing was that the telescope was looking at the same spot in the sky all the time. And that thing might symbolize the scientific way to see things. The problem in science is that everything must be scientifically proven. 

The weakness of science like radio astronomy is that the time that the devices can use is limited. There are also many other objects to search for than alien civilizations. The problem is that what if the scientists must look only one focus, that thing limits the way to see things. The radio telescope is the radio receiver as well as the mobile telephone or regular radio. 

So the same system, what is used in scientific work can use the same way in signal intelligence work. The reason why radio telescopes are not listening to every frequency is that some radio frequencies are prohibited to monitor because of data security. And that thing limits the ability to search for things like extraterrestrial civilizations. 

Arecibo telescope brought many things in front of science, but the problem is that those things are happening far away from our local neighborhood. Who is interested in some distant black holes or neutron stars? How the object, what is about 3000 light-years from us can risk our life? 

Well, have you ever hear about GRB:s (Gamma-Ray bursts) or FRB:s (Fast Radio Bursts). In those very tight energy rays, what remains less than a second, the energy level is so high, that the entire sun cannot create that energy level during its lifetime. And if that kind of burst hits the planet and hits its nucleus, that can destroy the entire planet. If that kind of high energy radiation hits to planet's nucleus, it can blow it away. 

This is one point of the research. But the fact is that the time for research is limited. That means the funders are expecting results and in the cases where we looking for the thing, what we cannot even imagine, or we cannot even know the direction, where we should start the research, we cannot give any time when the results are visible. This is the thing in science, but in astronomy and cosmology, we cannot say when we find something. 

Sources: 

https://scitechdaily.com/its-the-end-for-iconic-1000-foot-wide-telescope-at-arecibo-observatory-after-second-cable-break/

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SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the cosmic hay heap. 

In some visions, the radio telescope just turns away from the star, where comes the alien attempt to make contact. The biggest problem with the SETI program is how to separate the radio signals what aliens are sending from the natural radio signals. That means that the SETI-researchers might have billions of signals from the other civilizations, but they cannot separate them from the natural background radiation. The fact is that we don't know when the message from aliens come. It might come tomorrow, but it might come after 100 years. 

Sometimes people are saying that the SETI-program is like searching stylus from a cosmic hay heap. The thing is that the SETI is not so easy mission. On the Earth, we normally know what the hey heap and stylus might look like. 

And even if the location of the hay heap has not been described we can search the stylus from every hay heap on Earth. We can use a satellite to locate those hay heaps, and then go to search the stylus from those hay heaps. 

But in the cosmos, the problem is that we don't know even what the humanoids look like. Or where they are living. We don't know anything about them. But in the case where we should search stylus from hay heap, we are at least know the area, where we should search that stylus and hey heap.  

The fact is that the stylus is the merchandise it is found if we are searching long enough. But the humanoids or alien civilizations are intelligent creatures, what are making their own decision do they want to answer? And if those humanoids are capturing the radio signals from Earth, would they want to send a message to us. 

But in SETI research the problem is much more complicated. The fact is that if we wish to find alien telecommunication, we must capture the signals from the synthetic frequencies. And at least one of those frequencies is reserved for mobile communication. Those signals are prohibited to observe. 

If we are thinking about frequencies, what those aliens would use, the synthetic frequencies are a more promising target for searching the intelligent lifeforms than some hydrogen emission lines. The cosmic background radiation would not disturb the radio transmitting, which happens by using the synthetic frequencies. 

The transmitting data by using the hydrogen emission frequency means that the radio signals what the hydrogen atoms are sending disturb the signal what carries the data. But monitoring the synthetic radio frequencies is prohibited because of the data security. 

And even if the SETI researchers have permission to observe those signals, they must find the humanoid data transmission in those signals. The fact is that separation of the humanoid communication from the natural radio signals requires extremely high computer capacity. But if the SETI organizations will have that permission, this thing makes SETI-process more accurate and more effective. 

The quantum computer can make that separation by testing the security algorithms to captured signals, and if the signal involves the message, what can be read, the signal is coming from the mobile network that is operated by humans. But that thing requires extremely high trust to the organization, what is searching the extraterrestrial civilization. But there are billions of stars, what the telescope must monitor, and maybe someday we get the message from the distant star. 

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-detected-26-million-possible-technosignatures-they-all-came-from-us